While working with chronic neuropathic pain sufferers over the last few years, quite often I was asked if there is a “pain center” within our body, particularly in the brain, where pain is generated. One of my chronic pain patients actually quipped: “If you tell me where the pain hub is I will go to a surgeon and let them cut it out”. … [Read more...]

When it comes to treating someone in pain we have one way of knowing if our treatment has effected pain relief, and that is the patient’s verbal report. Perhaps another way of knowing whether pain has changed is to look at what’s happening in the brain. Well, this review is addressing precisely this question. Presented here[1] are the findings … [Read more...]

I love hearing Vania Apkarian speak. He is always so positive about his data and so forthright in his views that you have no doubt what he thinks and no doubt that he loves going to work. This workshop I went to today was no exception – it was Apkarian at his best. And, quite possibly, he has good reason to be excited. His group at NorthWestern in … [Read more...]

Human brain mapping doesn’t go back as far as one might think. The first brain activation studies used positron emission tomography (PET) back in the late 1980s. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, followed in the early 90s and went on to radically change neuroimaging [1].
Given that it’s such early days for brain mapping, it … [Read more...]

I’ve got news for those of us who thought that Italians just sat around wearing designer sunglasses and drinking fine coffee; it turns out we were wrong. This fMRI study by a group in Milan is a pearler, and I urge anyone who’s interested to have a look at it.[1]
First was a look into empathy: these investigators wanted to know whether the same … [Read more...]

One of the bits of the brain I find the toughest to understand is the insula. We hear about it when the “pain matrix” is discussed. The insula is part of what is currently understood as the medial pain system— involved in assigning meaning, emotion and affect to the pain experience[1]. Various neuroimaging studies have found activity in the … [Read more...]

Some of you might have heard of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and its use in chronic pain. Basically rTMS uses magnetic fields to generate electrical currents within the brain. This is a direct way of altering neuronal firing or excitability in the brain and a number of research groups have been investigating whether it might … [Read more...]

Numerous studies involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain, tell us that chronic back pain (CBP) alters brain function well beyond the feeling of pain and can cause impairments like depression, impaired decision-making and sleep disturbance [1,2].
It was Baliki’s group in 2008 which confirmed for the first time that CBP … [Read more...]

DO YOU HAVE BACK PAIN and live in Sydney?

or you do not currently have any pain conditions?
We are looking for people to take part in a study to help us understand more about the process of recovery from back pain.
We need to recruit two groups:
(1) People with recent onset of back pain lasting less than 3 weeks
(2) People who do not currently have back pain
You will be asked to undertake three assessments (approximately 2 hours each) over 4 months at the Physiotherapy Research Lab in the Centre for Physical Health at Macquarie University in Sydney.
You will receive $30 for each assessment to compensate you for your travel and your time involved in participating.
If you are interested and to register please visit our website or contact Dr Julia Hush.

Lorimer is coming to York!

In this first course in the UK for several years, Lorimer will lead you through his 'highlights of pain' tour, visiting the conceptual underpinnings of modern pain rehabilitation, cutting edge pain-related cognitive and clinical neuroscience, critical pain-related thinking, clinical reasoning and treatment principles.

From Painful Yarns, to Explaining Pain Better, to Biologically Based Graded Exposure, the Cortical Body Matrix and the Imprecision Hypothesis, it will be intense, but it will also be scientifically sound, evidence based, clinically applicable and fun!
WHEN: 20 – 21 May 2015
WHERE: National Science Learning Centre, University of York
Reserve your place: joanna@noigroup.com, phone +44(0) 1904737919

As a graduate student, I volunteered at my local community centre and the manager assigned me to run one of the weekly exercise classes offered to older people in the community. I found this experience highly rewarding and I was impressed by the enthusiasm of participants. The highlight of each class was teaching a series […]

Immediately following a spinal cord injury (SCI) patients enter a state of areflexia and muscle weakness that is gradually replaced by the recovery of neuronal and network excitability leading to improvements in residual motor function over time as well as to the development of spasticity (i.e. involuntary muscle spasms). Spasticity can lead to impairments in […]

All blog posts should be attributed to their author, not to BodyInMind. That is, BodyInMind wants authors to say what they really think, not what they think BodyInMind thinks they should think. Think about that!

BiM Section Editors

Chief Editor Lorimer Moseley PhD
University of South Australia & Neuroscience Research Australia

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All blog posts should be attributed to their author, not to BodyInMind. That is, BodyInMind wants authors to say what they really think, not what they think BodyInMind thinks they should think. Think about that!

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